The Doctor as Detective (with Dr. Lisa Sanders)

The Doctor's Art

As the real-life inspiration for and medical consultant to the popular TV show "House, M.D.," journalist-turned-physician Dr. Lisa Sanders has played quite the role in elevating the prestige and drama of medical diagnosis. For the past 20 years, Dr. Sanders has written a column in the New York Times titled "Diagnosis," in which she discusses bizarre and fascinating medical cases. In 2019, this column was turned into a Netflix documentary series of the same name. She has garnered much acclaim for presenting the process of diagnosis as a detective story, rather than the rote recall of a set of facts and figures. Dr. Sanders joins us in this episode to speak about her remarkable career path, her work, and how storytelling contributes to patient healing.

In this episode, you will hear about:

• Dr. Sanders’ career prior to medicine as a TV journalist and how it influenced her path as a physician - 1:59
• Dr. Sanders’ revelation about diagnosis as detective work and how she developed her passion for it - 4:59
• Being part of the handful of “weirdos” that Yale Medical School admits every year, and combating imposter syndrome - 7:14
• Dr. Sanders’ reflections on the how money-making impacts physician burnout and how the burden of choice in medical career paths may lead to a sense of disconnect - 12:39
• Medical diagnosis itself as a kind of healing, allowing patients to contextualize their circumstances within their personal narratives - 18:05
• Dr. Sanders’ best-practices on communicating with patients - 29:03
• The methodology of solving and describing medical mysteries - 32:10
• Challenges and opportunities in eliciting and listening to patient stories - 42:16
• Dr. Sanders’ hope that the human dimension of medicine does not get displaced by the technical dimension, and why storytelling is integral to patient healing - 46:41

Dr. Lisa Sanders is the author of several books, including

Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis (2009), and

Diagnosis: Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries (2019)

She writes a column for the New York Times called Diagnosis, which can be found archived here

Follow Dr. Sanders on Twitter @LisaSandersmd

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

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